Claudia, I think you’re making the same prestigious and popular mistake nearly every expert makes on this topic. Iran’s nuclear program is shrouded in secrecy. After Iraq, the last thing the United States can afford is a strike on what might turn out to be a mostly civilian nuclear program. Sometimes I get the feeling Iran is begging for a strike on their program, which does not suggest a belief there will be evidence of military intent.

I’m not saying the regime isn’t building nuclear weapons, but they seem to believe there’s no way we’d be able to prove it. And who could disagree? Air strikes won’t turn up any evidence the Iranians don’t want made public.

But that’s far from the end of the story. Ahmadinejad, the Guardian Council, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Basij Militia are all avowed and fanatical enemies of the United States, and mostly loathed by a large segment of the Iranian people.

There’s something called a “decapitation strike” which would be less risky and more useful in the case of Iran. Our enemy is not the Iranian people or nuclear scientists, but those who employ them for nefarous purposes. Hitting the people and institutions I mentioned above would not make enemies of the Iranian people and is completely justified by their genocidal rhetoric and incessant declarations of (not to mention acts of) war against the United States.